


love your lies

by Macremae



Series: i spy [1]
Category: EOS 10 (Podcast)
Genre: AU, Fluff, M/M, honeypot mission, past relationship, spy AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-20
Updated: 2016-06-20
Packaged: 2018-07-16 05:40:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7254724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Macremae/pseuds/Macremae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>“Please tell me you’re joking,” Ryan groaned, giving Jane an incredulous look.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>She shrugged. “Can’t say I am. What’s the problem anyway? It’s just a honeypot mission; you’ve done a million of ‘em.”</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Ryan bit his lip and read the profile in front of him again. “It’s just… well, I kind of have a history with him.”</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Ryan is given a honeypot mission. That's normal. Then he sees who the target is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	love your lies

**Author's Note:**

> So sadhipstercat and I were discussing spy aus and this was one of the ones they came up with. Props to them for thinking of the name!

“Please tell me you’re joking,” Ryan groaned, giving Jane an incredulous look.

She shrugged. “Can’t say I am. What’s the problem anyway? It’s just a honeypot mission; you’ve done a million of ‘em.”

Ryan bit his lip and read the profile in front of him again. “It’s just… well, I kind of have a history with him.”

Jane raised a ‘this took me half an hour and four different kinds of brushes so you better damn well compliment it’ eyebrow. “Oh, really?”

“Um… yeah. We went to The Academy together. Same class.”

“Okay, but I don’t exactly see how-”

“And he may or may not have been the guy that made me realize I wasn’t straight.”

Jane’s eyes widened. “Seriously?” A cat-like grin spread across her face. “Wow. Oh my God, this is gonna suck for you!”

“Can you maybe not?” Ryan grumbled.

“I mean, wow. You’re gonna have to-”

“I know.”

“And he’ll think-”

“ _I know_.”

“And the whole time, you’ll-”

“I KNOW.”

Jane put her hands up defensively. “Geez, I get it, touchy subject. Well, look on the bright side. At least you won’t have any trouble pretending to like him.”

Ryan sighed. “I’m honestly hoping I will.”

\--

The bar was crowded and dimly lit, with only a few dingy lamps to provide any light. Most of the leather stools were cracked, facing a counter made of slightly splintering wood and stained with various liquids. A short, four-armed being with curly maroon hair and a seemingly perpetual scowl was cleaning glasses behind it, and occasionally yelling back into the kitchens about something involving “little shop of horrors not being used as an example you waffle-fucking moron get those geraniums out of my bar or I will shove them up your ass”.

_This seems like a nice place_ , Ryan thought.

He was wearing a nice-ish looking flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up, snugly fitting jeans, and a look that Jane had called “farmers market hot”. The reference was lost on him, but he had to admit, he didn’t look half bad. His usually somewhat tidy hair had been allowed to revert to its preferred state of fluffy unruliness, and Ryan was having to blow it out of his eyes even more often than usual. 

He sat down on one of the bar stools and nervously drummed his fingers on the counter. Scanning the crowd for his target, Ryan failed to notice the bartender trying to get his attention until they cleared their throat loudly.

“Oh, um, sorry,” he said, “I’ll just have a water.”

“Designated driver?” they asked with a knowing look.

Ryan nodded. “Yeah, something like that.”

There was suddenly a loud screech from the kitchen, and, making a face that would scare grown men into oblivion, the bartender turned, yelled, “LEVI YOU HAVE EXACTLY TEN SECONDS BEFORE I RIP OUT YOUR ORGANS AND USE THEM AS PARTY STREAMERS AT YOUR FUNERAL,” gave Ryan a wane smile, and stormed towards the noise’s source.

The familiar-looking man next to him chuckled into his drink.

“Does that happen a lot?” Ryan asked him.

“Every other day or so,” he replied good-naturedly. “If y’all listen closely, you can hear the sound of all hell’s fury being unleashed. How a person that tiny can have so much anger I’ll never know, but that’s Enoch for ya.”

Ryan blinked and looked closer at the man. He was tall, obviously fit, with tanned skin and dark ginger hair falling down to his shoulders. A thin, white scar ran under his left eye, the both of which had an odd, almost calculating look in them. 

Ryan froze when he realized why the man was so familiar: it was Akmazian, who, along with being unfortunately even hotter in person, seemed to be recognizing him as well.

“Say, he said curiously, “do I know y’all?”

“Yeah,” Ryan replied with a smile, “I remember you; you’re Akmazian. We went to school together. I’m Ryan.”

Realization dawned on Akmazian, and he grinned charmingly. “Oh, _you_. Well, how could I not remember the best part of college?”

Ryan felt himself blush, and thought, _Oh yeah, that’s why I had a crush on him. Shit. Okay, focus. I have to be the one seducing here, not the other way around_. 

“I could say the same,” he replied smoothly, ignoring the urge to stutter like an idiot. “You’re certainly a sight for sore eyes in a place like this. Do I even want to know what you’ve been getting up to?”

Akmazian looked almost surprised for a moment, before laughing. “Someone's certainly changed a bit. Last I saw you, all I had to do was wink and y’all were as red as a tomato.”

Ryan rolled his eyes. “I didn’t blush _that_ hard.”

“My memory would insist otherwise.”

“What else does it say about me?”

“That those glasses you used to wear seem to be missing in action.”

“Really? That’s what sticks out most?”

Akmazian shrugged. “Y’all looked damn adorable in them. Sue me.”

Ryan bit his lip again to keep from getting too flustered. He heard a sharp intake of breath from Akmazian in response, and decided to file that detail away for future use. 

“So, what do you do now?” he asked.

“Supplier. I run a cargo business, take orders, boring stuff like that. You?”

“I’m a doctor,” Ryan replied, deciding on a half-truth.

“Really? Guess there really is a ‘Dr. Sexy’.”

After internally panicking for the smallest of moments ( _be cool be cool DO YOUR JOB AND STOP BLUSHING DAMMIT_ ), Ryan burst out laughing. “Wow,” he said, “you haven’t changed a bit, have you?”

“Nope. Y’all’ve gotten cuter though, if that’s even possible.”

Ryan covered his burning face with a hand. “Oh my God, and you’ve gotten even more shameless!”

Akmazian winked at him roguishly. “Y’all say that like it’s a bad thing.”

Bringing himself back around to buisness, Ryan noted, “Cargo shipping must be pretty dangerous to give you scars like that.” 

For the briefest of moments, Akmazian got a faraway look in his eyes. “Long story,” he said, neatly avoiding the subject. 

“I’m sure it’s interesting.” Ryan said, deciding to press his luck.

Akmazian raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t y’all curious.”

“You were always getting into something back at The Academy. I can only imagine what you’ve seen now,” Ryan replied nonchalantly.

Akmazian smirked. “Nice try, sir.”

Ryan momentarily felt his heart skip several beats ( _do not get turned on do not get turned on_ ), and quickly schooled his expression into one of polite confusion. “I’m sorry?”

“Don’t be coy. I read the same textbooks as y’all did, this has ‘honeypot’ written all over it. Or did y’all think I wouldn’t notice the Alliance-issued watch?”

Ryan muttered several choice swears and slid the watch from his wrist. Akmazian chuckled bitterly. “So, I take it y’all’ve been doing a little more than healing people, eh Doc?”

Cover blown, Ryan decided he might as well make the best of it. “You could say that. I- it really is nice to see you, though.”

Akmazian gave him a condescending look. “I’m sure,” he said dryly.

Ryan looked down at his hands nervously, fiddling with the idea forming in his mind, and, in a classic act of Not Thinking Things Through, decided to go through with it.

“No, really,” he said, looking back up at Akmazian. 

“Isn’t it y’all’s job to lie to people?,” Akmazian replied, crossing his arms. “Too bad that didn’t work tonight, eh?”

“Actually…” Ryan paused and shyly looked away again, his heart pounding in his chest, “it hasn’t been so bad.”

A look of interest darted across Akmazian’s face. “Oh really?”

_Okay, here we go. Don’t screw this up, don’t screw this up_. “Yeah. When I found out you were the… target, I was pretty nervous.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well… I kind of developed a crush on you near the end of college.”

Akmazian looked properly floored. “I- huh?”

“I didn’t really say anything because I didn’t understand it at the time, but yeah. You were kinda my gay awakening. Or, well, bi, actually. You’re right, this did sort of start out as a mission, but… I dunno, I’ve actually been having a pretty great time catching up.” Ryan gave a little laugh. “I guess I never really got over you.”

“Oh,” said Akmazian quietly. He looked, down at his hands, then back up at Ryan “Oh.”

Ryan chewed on the inside of his lip nervously as the silence stretched on. Then, Akmazian gave him a lopsided smile. 

“Well damn. If I had a list of things I never expected to be, ‘gay awakening’ would certainly be near the top.”

The tension left Ryan’s shoulders, and he grinned back. “Believe me, I didn’t expect it either. Don’t sell yourself short though, you were a catch. Even more so now.”

After a few false starts, Akmazian tentatively reached his hand across the counter and placed it on Ryan’s. “Is anyone tailing y’all tonight?” he asked.

Ryan raised an eyebrow. “No. Why do you ask?”

Akmazian’s gaze darted towards the door. “I was thinking we could, y’know… make up for lost time?” He winked, and, yep, Ryan was blushing again okay great fantastic.

“Yeah,” he said, noticing the way Akmazian’s eyes lingered on his burning cheeks, “catching up sounds like a great idea.”

\--

The next day, when Ryan walked into HQ with his sweater collar just a little higher than normal, Jane snickered into her hand. 

“Someone had fun last night,” she said knowingly. “Get anything good?”

Ryan shrugged. “You could say that.”


End file.
